d no to the health care bill. at home you would never pay a bill without reading it neither should congress. i'm frank kratovil and i approve this message because i'm proud to be ranked one of the most independent members of congress. on our broadcast here tonight, hard times. new numbers that may shock some americans about their country. i have and running a day after her surprise victory. the senate candidate from delaware. the tea party woman of the moment is raising big money. the question is, votes in november. keeping tabs on peaceful groups and protestor in this country. now the secret's out and it's a huge embarrassment. gold rush. prices for gold as a record high. people are either flocking to it or worried about it. also tonight, did the first lady really say that? "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. there are new numbers out tonight on the state of poverty in the united states. that deserve our attention. they tell a bleak story of strugle in an economy that is leaving a lot of citizens behind. the numbers from the census bureau show that in 2009, 14.3% of americans were living below the poverty line. that's up from the year before, and the highest since 1994. in terms of actual people, that means more than 43.5 million americans now living below the poverty line, which, by the way, is defined as just under $22,000 a year for a family of four. there are other families who make more than that amount, but because of the cost of living are unable to make ends meet. there is also alarming news about americans and their homes and their health insurance. we'll get to all of it.

we begin with lee cowan in los angeles with more on these numbers and the people behind them. lee, good evening. >> reporter: brian, just to put these numbers in perspective, it means 1 out of 7 americans is living in poverty tonight and as high as that number is, experts say it could have been even higher. it's a snapshot that doesn't discriminate. the poverty rate rose for all ethnicities and races. among the hardest hit are children. 1 in 5 are now estimated to be growing up poor in the richest nation in the world. >> numbers five and six. >> reporter: at food pantries like this one in los angeles, the new face of the poor isn't what you might expect. take elma, a professional mother of two. >> we get bread, sometimes we get seafood, sometimes we get

chicken. >> reporter: across town at the local mission, we found a college graduate who is now homeless. >> i never ever really disclosed this to my family because it's embarrassing. i'm expected to do well, you know? >> reporter: then there's norma, she's worked since she was 13. but lost her job last year. >> when you see that you don't have nothing at home to cook or to offer, it makes it tough. >> she can't afford food, let alone health care. and she's not alone. the numbers of americans like her without health insurance climbed to 51 million people last year, nearly 1 in 6, a record. the numbers are so bad for working-age people that some are comparing them to the 1960s, just before president lyndon johnson launched a host of welfare programs on his war on poverty. >> we chat not rest until that war is won. the richest nation on earth can

afford to win it. we cannot afford to lose it. >> reporter: but critics say we've done just that, lose. >> the child poverty rate today is exactly the same level as it was back when johnson started the war on poverty in the 1960s. so obviously spending more on welfare isn't the answer here. >> reporter: others disagree, saying that welfare programs worked for some, but even more government action needs to be taken. >> the best anti-poverty program is not a new social program, but a robust jobs program that prepares, trains, and puts people back to work, that expands the economy. >> reporter: when americans are searching for what to eat for dinner or wondering how they're going to feed their children, it's hard to imagine the statistics could be much worse. brian, most experts say these numbers aren't necessarily the best estimate of the nation's health. there's a lot of things they don't take into account, but

they team to point to a disturbing trend that the problem of poverty isn't diminishing, it's growing. >> lee, thank you for that. as promised, news on another economic front, the number of people who lost their homes to foreclosure hit an all-time high last month. 95,000 homes were repossessed, taken back by the bank in foreclosure. that number is up a full 25% from last year. now we turn to election politics. the latest reverberations from that stunning win in tuesday night's primary in delaware, where the tea party backed candidate christine o'donnell won the gop nomination in the race for a senate seat there. delaware is a small state, but what happened there is getting big attention. that would include the white house, where white house correspondent chuck todd is standing by tonight. >> reporter: good evening. despite the warning signs, all the surprise primary winners, leaders from both parties,

including folks at the white house, are struggling to figure out how this tea party movement has so successfully tapped into this angry and frustrated american voter. 24 hours after her stunning upset in delaware, unknown christine o'donnell has raised a million dollars online at the republican senate nominee. while the establishment wing of the republican party is still nervous about her chances, south carolina senator jim demint, an unofficial leader of the tea party movement, is enthusiastic. >> she's going to come to washington, she's going to help us balance the budget, help us repeal obama care. >> reporter: but democrats today stepped up their campaign against her, circulating old tv clips which she equates viewing pornography as committing adultery. >> we need to address sexuality with young people. >> reporter: but she said that was then, this is now. >> going into the senate, i will have a different role.

i am there to advocate the constitutional principles which our party was founded. so, yeah, i was a passionate person in my 20s. that was a long time ago. i'm in my 40s now. >> reporter: demint says focusing on tea party candidates being extreme miss the larger point of the movement. >> so they're asking for some common sense things. stop spending, stop borrowing, stop adding to the debt. >> reporter: whether voters will separate the personal from the policy is a concern for republican regulars. >> national party strategists have to walk a fine line here. >> reporter: analysts say republicans can't publicly abandon her, but they are reluctant to fully embrace her. >> they don't want to be seen as destroying the tea party candidates. on the other hand, they don't want the republican party to be defined solely as the tea party and tea party candidates. >> reporter: pat buchanan

believes the republican establishment has to trade carefully. >> history shows if you cut the coming movement, it will cut you. nixon campaigned for goldwater in '64. '68 he was the nominee and president. nelson rockefeller wouldn't wear a goldwater button. 10 years later he was thrown off of ford's ticket. >> reporter: the president is on the campaign trail tonight. he's in connecticut. it's that senate seat that chris dodd is vacating. the republican candidate is another candidate with an unusual background that the democrats doesn't propel her into office and they're trying to stop it and keep that seat blue. >> chuck todd at the white house tonight. former president jimmy carter doing publicity for his new book "white house diary." it contends americans would have universal health care coverage already and would have had it decades ago were it not for the late senator ted kennedy who often was called the champion of

health care. the two men were archrivals and carter indicates kennedy just didn't want the carter effort to be successful, and "killed the bill" those news accounts show congress was in no mood to be passing a spending bill. we'll have that interview with jimmy carter for you here monday night. when the '60s were over and the files of that era were finally thrown open, we learned about all kinds of domestic surveillance, some illegal on americans who posed zero threat to our democracy or way of life. and it has apparently happened again. it's a sign of our times that the state of pennsylvania has its own office of homeland security, and the governor of pennsylvania is reacting with shock and anger that they have been found to be tracking legitimate protest groups that pose no danger to public safety. our justice correspondent pete

williams is in philadelphia tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, this has turned out to be a big embarrassment for pennsylvania, and some of those groups targeted for intelligence gathering by the state are already talking about suing. keep an eye out warns a pennsylvania state intelligence bulletin, for the screening of movie critical of natural gas drilling. >> the neurological effects are insidious. >> reporter: the showing of the movie "gas land" was among events in an official intelligence bulletin from the pennsylvania office of homeland security sent to local law enforcement statewide. but the discovery that the state was keeping tabs on a long list of peaceful groups stunned pennsylvania's governor, who ordered an immediate stop to it. >> the fact that they disseminated this to stake holders, local law enforcement on what were legitimate protests, citizens exercising their rights under the constitution, it's especially embarrassing because this is pennsylvania. this is where the constitution

was written. this is where the country started. >> reporter: along with environmentalists protesting this huge natural gas project in pennsylvania, the state was tracking gay rights events, demonstrations against bp for the gulf oil spill, and animal rights groups protesting rodeos. >> frankly, i was under the impression that enemies of the state were iran, libya, and north korea. i don't know when mother nature and granola bars became enemies of the state. >> reporter: the list was drawn up by a private contractor. the contractor says protests can be trigger events for radicals and some environmentists are becoming more violent. but "washington post" reporter says it's part of a huge growth in what she calls secret america. >> in fact, there's very little oversight at the state level on what state government is collecting on their citizens. and if anything, this example shows us a need to get ahold of

that. >> reporter: pennsylvania's contract with the company responsible for that intelligence bulletin expires in a few weeks and the state now says it will not be renewed. >> pete williams in philadelphia tonight. north on the turnpike, some severe weather to tell you about tonight here in the new york city area. at the height of the rush hour, some parts of this city it became night early. there were tornado warnings for two of the five new york city burroughs. there is damage. trees, signs, power lines, power outages, airport delays. and we have just in some dramatic video of those huge bolts of lightning striking very close to the statue of liberty. you can see how severe the storms were for a time. overseas tonight, the pope is on a history making four-day trip to the uk. he was met this morning by the queen in scotland and then at the end of his open-air mass,

susan boyle was granted her life-long wish to sing for the pope. when our broadcast continues in just a moment, in uncertain economic times, why so many americans are finding peace of mind in a shiny part of the earth. and later, more on our top story and the voices of those struggling to make it. thank you for calling usa prime credit. my name is...peggy. what is problem, please? peggy? sure...well...suddenly it looks like i'm being charged a $35 annual fee. yes? tell me it's a mistake. yes? are you saying yes or are you asking yes? yes? peggy? peggy? anncr: want better customer service? switch to discover. ranked #1 in customer loyalty. it pays to discover.

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if jaw problems or severe bone, joint, and/or muscle pain develop, tell your doctor. i've got this one body and this one life, so i'm glad boniva helped me stop losing and start reversing. ask your doctor about boniva today. (announcer) to get one month free, plus more tips and recipes, visit boniva.com or call 1-800-4-boniva. we're back. every night here we talk about the dicey u.s. economy. americans are always grappling with how to save, how to invest. the dow jones industrial average, after all, is below where it was ten years ago. interest rates are close to zero. what is going up is gold. it set a new record today, up more than five bucks, it now trades at $1,273 an ounce. some people are turning to it. others are scared of it. our own peter alexander has more on what some are calling this new gold rush. >> reporter: call it a modern

day gold rush. from discarded heirlooms to ever hopeful prospectors -- >> i can get cash for this gold medallion. >> reporter: those commercials on tv, gold's record rise has inspired a new wave of investors. at buhlian trading, isaac says small investors are buying from him rather than risk putting their money into volatile markets. >> investors are worried about investing and what's going to hold value. so they're buying gold. >> reporter: it's happened before, during the great depression, and again as a recession gripped america in the 1980s. gold prices soared, then plummeted as the economy stabilize. still today's numbers are staggering. since the dow's peak in 2007, it's dropped 25%. in that same period, gold has surged. up 70%. >> your portfolio is what? >> gold. >> reporter: it's been a great

run for terry mason. beyond his 401(k) at work, he invested his family's entire savings in gold. what he views as a safe hayen. what about gold makes you feel secure? >> i don't have to worry about whether the government makes a bad choice that might affect the economy negatively. >> reporter: george soros warned this week that gold is the ultimate bubble. >> by the time main street figures out something is hot and want to jump in, it's usually very late in the game. it tends to go higher after the public discovers it, but usually it's the last gasp. >> reporter: nobody know where is we are in the game right now, but an improvement in the economy could dim the luster of gold. peter alexander, nbc news, new york. when we come back here tonight, a foreign leader in the news for a trick photo, and the first lady of the u.s. in the

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reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. even though there are denials on both sides of the atlantic, there's a remark floating around that's been attributed to first lady michelle obama that she may have to live with for a while, however fairly or unfairly. it will probably make its ways to the talk shows. it's in a new book about the french first lady. it says mrs. obama told her she hates the job as first lady and it's hell. the first lady is denying it, but the fact is, as the president noted in a speech in

connecticut just today, it is a tough role. a number of first ladies have felt caged in and as the old saying goes in politics, they weren't the ones elected. they don't hand out academy awards in baseball, though they might consider it after this. watch this pitch during last night's yankees game. derek jeter wincing in pain, obviously struck by a pitch. he's then awarded first base. but wait, watch in slow motion. it hit the butt of the bat. he's not captain of the yankees for nothing. he did cop to it after game, said his job is to get on base. but you should know with jeter on base, the next batter hit a two-run homer to give the yanks lead. but tampa bay rays won the game 4-3. an egyptian state-owned newspaper is being called out on a bit of creative photo shopping. here's the photo taken at the white house where a group of middle eastern leaders were

meeting with president obama. it shows the egyptian president leading the way, and that's just great, folks love it. until you see the original photo of him trailing badly on the outside lane. despite the revelation, the photograph was still being featured on the home page as late as this afternoon. when we come back here tonight, a personal look at the story that started off our broadcast tonight. the struggle going on to make ends meet day in and day out. copd makes it hard for me to breathe. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now, i can join the fun and games with my grandchildren. great news! for people with copd, including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, advair helps significantly improve lung function. while nothing can reverse copd, advair is different from most other copd medications because it contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator, working together to help you breathe better. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms

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we started tonight's broadcast by talking about the alarming rise in poverty in this wealthy nation. the numbers we said deserve our attention. and finally tonight, we're going to hear about struggles and hope from someone working every day on the front lines. lisa roberts runs a food pantry called friends and neighbors, in a tiny village in southeast ohio. we first heard from her on this broadcast back in july as part of a "dateline" special. but when we heard today's news about the 43 plus million americans living in poverty, we thought it was time to hear from her again. tonight, we close our broadcast

with lisa roberts in her own words. >> before they came to us, they went to their church, to their family, to their friends. they tried everything. before they had to come to a food pantry and say, i don't have enough to feed my family. >> it feels like the great depression. >> there's no jobs here. >> most of the people just need food today and next week and the month after that, and after that. >> how are you doing today? >> wonderful, wonderful. how about you? >> good. >> it's not an emergency thing anymore, it's an everyday thing now. sometimes you hear, oh, you know, they're just laying back, waiting for a handout. they could go to work if they wanted to go to work. they would rather be on welfare. they would rather have 100 kids. it's not true. they're not asking to be rich. they're asking to not be hungry, to be able to pay their bills and buy their medicine. that's not too much.

you have to stay hopeful or you're going to cry, you know? how am guying to face the children that are going to come through here without hope, without a smile, without, come on, it's going to get better, we can pull it together. the america that my parents raised me up with, this is the promised land. it's beautiful here. it is our home. and it can be good. it can be. i want it to be strong again. i want that strong, fighting spirit that exists to overcome. >> food pantry director lisa roberts in her own words. after the "dateline" story aired, she received a lot of donations. she's hoping to expand her pantry to reach even more people in the area. and to see ann curry's suburb documentary in its entirety on poverty in america, there's a link on our website,

nightly.nbc.com. for us for now, that's our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you, as always, for being here with us. i'm brian williams. and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com everyone knows a fee is a tax. you raised some taxes during that period, particularly the property tax as well as a lot of fee increases. as you know, there's a big difference between fees and taxes. but...they're the same. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. it's a tax. there's a big difference between fees and taxes.